News

Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV) of the Philippines and CRH of Ireland are reported to have widened their ties with Lafarge Republic (LRI) in a deal that involves interests in another two of the listed cement manufacturer's assets.

The companies have inked the revised investment deals that involve the stake acquisitions in the subsidiaries of LRI, which are Lafarge Mindanao and Lafarge Iligan.

The transaction will likely be completed within July-December 2015.

According to AEV, Lafarge Mindanao and L

In January-July 2015, production of cement in China fell 5% year-on-year to 1.29 billion tonnes.

Meanwhile, profit generated by cement sales contracted about 64% to CNY 14.70 billion (€2.06 billion/US$2.30 billion).

In July, 2015, the average market price of cement fell by about CNY 80/tonne, compared to a fall of CNY 51/tonne in early 2015.

The cement industry recorded CNY 1.42 billion in profit during the month, down by 63.45% in comparison to June 2015.

Trimble has acquired Vianova Systems, a Norwegian company specialising in Building Information Modeling (BIM) software for infrastructure design software solutions across the European region.

Vianova Systems (VS) is said to be a pioneer in the development of software leveraging advanced BIM technology for the civil engineering market and infrastructure lifecycle management across road, rail, sea and air infrastructure design. The company offers a portfolio of solutions for civil engineers, civil contract

HeidelbergCement has taken further important steps to strengthen its financing in completing the disposal of its lime business in Germany to the Belgian Lhoist Group. Both companies agreed not to disclose any details about the transaction.

Doosan Portable Power has won an order for portable compressors worth well over £4 million (€5.45 million) from A-Plant, a leading UK plant, tools and equipment hire company.

The order comprises close to 500 Doosan compressors, including the first order in the UK for the new 7/73-10/53 Dual Mode model.

A-Plant has ordered over 60 7/73-10/53 portable compressors as well as a further 24 of the larger 7/125-10/110 Dual Modemodels, alongside over 400 other units including 7/20 and 7/26EG single tool and

Cement production, quarrying and batching concrete don’t seem likely bed fellows with nature. But Cemex UK says it has created 660 hectares of conservation habitat - equivalent to more than 850 football pitches, to encourage wildlife on its land.

The company launched a Biodiversity Strategy in partnership with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in 2010 and made a commitment to create 100 hectares a year to give nature a home. This target has been well exceeded with 660 hectares produced

Pakistan’s Lucky Cement is said to be close to winning a permit to extract limestone in Punjab province, allowing the country’s largest maker of the building material by market value to implement its expansion plans.

Bloomberg reports that the company will get a limestone quarry for a cement plant in Punjab, and the local administration has approved the deal, said Arshad Mehmood, secretary for Punjab’s mines and minerals department. An agreement is expected to be signed in the next few days, he said.

Much of the research to date to reduce the environmental impacts of concrete has focused on the partial replacement of cement with industrial by-products, such as fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag, and silica fume.

In comparison, conservation of natural aggregates has been largely ignored in the United States even though these materials take about half of the concrete mix by volume. Recycling of old concrete in the form of aggregate has been mostly in non-structural applications such as side

Indonesia will host the 7th Asia CemenTrade Summit, on 20-21 October, 2015, in Bali.

The summit offers an “up-to-date review of the infrastructure led cement market growth in Asian countries, particularly Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Nepal, Myanmar and Laos,” the organiser says.

Robust infrastructure development in Asia leading to heightened cement demand will be a central theme when major local and global cement producers meet in Bali. The Indonesian market gets top focus with three informative

Sandvik Construction has appointed Fredheim Maskin as its new distributor for the firm’s full range of mobile crushing and screening equipment in Norway. Fredheim Maskin will also be providing full aftermarket care, spare parts and dedicated customer service.

The appointment of such a professional and experienced distributor as Fredheim Maskin is said to reinforce Sandvik Construction’s commitment to providing even greater levels of customer care, and further enhances its commitment to enhanced locally f

Screening and crushing industry giant McCloskey International has welcomed AMS as Kazakhstan dealer to its global network of distributors. In September 2015, AMS will be introducing McCloskey to the Kazakhstan market at Kazcomak and Mining World, which is the 12th Kazakhstan International Road and Heavy Construction & Communal Machinery and Mining Exhibitions.

To provide further support to their expanding dealer network and customer base across the north of the UK, Case Construction Equipment has appointed Gordon Wallace as business manager for Scotland and northwest England. Wallace, who has worked for Case for the past 18 years, progressing from demonstration operator in the first couple of years through to his current role as business manager for central Asia, will take up his new position on 1 October 2015. He brings a wealth of experience to his new positio

Simon Vivian, chief executive of Breedon Aggregates, the UK’s largest independent aggregates business, has today been appointed MPA chairman for the next two years. He succeeds Bill Brett, of the Brett Group, and of the Mineral Products Association’s (MPA) five Chairmen to date, Vivian is the third to serve from an independent company.

To help redress the severe shortage of trained service technicians for construction equipment and trucks in Ethiopia, Volvo launched a new vehicle technician program at the Selam Technical College in Addis Ababa in 2013. Now the first intake of students has graduated. Ethiopia is a country with a booming infrastructure and civil engineering sector. Service technicians for construction equipment and trucks are in high demand and local colleges are struggling to train students at a sufficient rate – many of t